Sunday, March 19, 2006

Plum chutney

Ever since I saw Spicehut's Bengali plum chutney, I knew I HAD to make it. It sounded too yummy for words - and believe me, it was, despite the slight variations I incorporated by being too lazy to measure the ingredients exactly!

Making changes to a recipe I've never made before, without knowing how it might affect the end result and how different it might be from the original - well, it could have been a pretty dumb thing to do. Luckily it wasnt. This plum chutney was well agreeable to incorporating minor changes. The end result was not only delicious, it was also versatile... I used it as a dip, as a side-dish with rotis and as a sauce for vegetables! How cool is that?



It was also very nice to see the chutney take on its beautiful red colour. The plums I had werent particularly red inside. They were sort of dingy, really, and I was worried the chutney would look like sludge at the end. But no, as the plums cooked down, they took on the gorgeous scarlet of Spicehut's original. Phew! (I was seriously toying with the idea of adding red food colouring, had the chutney NOT turned the right colour by itself! Glad I didnt have to cheat!)

Recipe for:
Plum chutney




Ingredients:

3 ripe plums, de-seeded and chopped
1/2 onion, chopped
2 dried red chillies, whole (broken in half ONLY if you want real heat in your chutney)
3 tbsp lime juice
1 tbsp balsamic vinegar
1 tsp cinnamon powder
2 tbsp sugar
1 tsp oil
1/2 tsp mustard seeds
Salt to taste
1 cup water

Method:

1. In a pan, heat the oil and fry the red chillies. Pop the mustard seeds with the pan covered.

2. Put in the chopped plums and stir, then add the cinnamon powder, balsamic vinegar, lime juice and salt. Stir well.



3. Let the plums soften a little, then add the water and cook on med-high until the plums disintegrate.

4. When the plums have cooked down to a fairly thick sauce, add the sugar. Let it simmer for 3-4 minutes longer.

5. Let cool and store in the fridge. This chutney can be used as a dip for savoury snacks or as a side-dish with chapatis.

5 comments:

lost in thoughts said...

Hey I am glad you liked it !! Thanks for posting the feedback on my blog.

Anonymous said...

I had seen that recipe and wanted to try it. Now yr pics makes me wanna definitely try it. What a lovely color it has.

Anonymous said...

Hi, when do we use the onions mentioned in the ingredients? thanks

Shammi said...

Ooops.. Hi Neetu, the onions should be added along with the plums. Thanks for pointing out the omission!

Susanne said...

I tried this with a different plum, not such a lovely colour as yours, but taste divine. I was a bit unsure how much to make so did some guessing too. Is it tart or sweet, I had to put more sugar in and the balsamic always makes it darker, will try with a red wine vinegar next time, and as I love star anis dropped one into the mix. Thanks for posting.
Susanne